Sue:

Sorry, no time for blogging anymore. Wii rewarded a hard’s season’s work by buying a Nintendo Wii. I’ve never been much for video games, but I must say I’ve been having a heck of a time with this thing. Wii may never go outside again. So if the RV’s rockin’, don’t bother knockin’; wii’re wii-ing.

And I’m just kidding about the no blogging thing. Phil’s moms will be here soon, so wii’ll have plenty to write about. I just hope you all with stay with us through another year in Skagway. That’s right. Wii’re repeating once again. But third time’s the limit. Wii promise. And there’s still the sugar beet blogs to look forward to.

Sue:

Last Monday while we were walking home from work, a car slowed down and a woman told us to be careful because she saw the mama bear and her cubs eating right where we were going to be in a couple of minutes. Phil and I crossed the street to be on the safe side (yeah) and kept our eyes open. We didn’t see them, but when we got home, after I took the dogs out, we jumped in the truck to see if we could find them. We took the Dyea road, which was where the woman told us she saw them, but we didn’t see anything. When we got to the stop sign, we could have turned left to go home or right to go into town, and we decided to head towards town just for fun. As luck would have it, mama and babies were crossing the street right ahead of us. Phil turned in to a storage area, and we got a front-row seat for the bear show.

Cubs up a tree:

Skagway’s new Spirit Bear:

(On a side note, a Spirit Bear is a bear that is kind of silvery in color. Skagway had a 2-year old Spirit Bear up until this June, when a local man shot and killed it because he said the bear was taking a “threatening posture” near his daughter’s rabbit hutch. Nevermind that the bear was supposedly protected.)

The good cub following its mama:

Until he noticed that his sibs weren’t coming:

So they all climbed the tree again:

Mama noticed none of her kids were with her:

So she turns around, sees us, gets nervous:

And stares us down:

Before she heads back to get her babies:

And gives them a scolding:

Did she tell that one we were looking at them?

She finally gets them down and moving:

But something catches the little guy’s attention:

And he has to run to catch up:

That’s the end of the bear show:

Sue:

On August 9th, we celebrated two years of having Xander as part of our family. We made that day his birthday since we have no idea when his real birthday is. It was an exciting day.

Xander and Willoughby watching Phil prepare the apple-peanut butter cakes:

Xander trying to help Phil with the preparation:

Finally getting to eat:

Willoughby’s satisfied slurp:

Xander got Buffy the buffalo for his birthday:

And then we took them outside to run around for a bit in the sunshine:

Thanks again to Paula for sending along this little guy’s info two years ago. He was well worth the trip from Yellowstone to Albuquerque and back again. And thanks to the woman who picked him up on the side of the road, and to the great folks who took care of him until we could.

Sue:

First, a bit of business. I was talking to my mom the other day, and she verified that our family knew two helicopter pilots back when I was little (both died in helicopter crashes), so my memory of a promised helicopter ride that I mentioned a couple blogs ago could actually be real. She tried to leave a comment for all to see, but for some reason it didn’t work for her. So ya’ll will just have to take my word for it.

I teased you with some bear pictures last time, and the teasing continues. I didn’t get a chance to re-size all the bear pictures yet, but I do have some fish and seal pictures to share.

Phil and I had been hearing about the gigantic King Salmon that made it to Skagway this year. I guess this happens only once every few years, so last year we missed out. So last Sunday, Phil and I went downtown to see what all the fuss was about. But first we decided to go to Dyea to check out all the salmon there, with the hopes of seeing the grizzes fishing for them.

We didn’t see any bears, but we did see a bunch of salmon, and this:

Salmon caviar, anyone? I don’t know what the story is with that pile of fish eggs. A fisherman friend of ours thinks maybe someone was gutting one there and left the pile on the rock. I buy that.

Downtown in the creek, we saw a bunch of monster salmon, and we were just in time to watch someone who had just caught a King carrying it in both arms. I was too shy to ask him to take his picture, but I sure wish I would have. It was huge! And the pictures I took of them in the creek don’t do them justice. I won’t be so shy next time.

After the creek, we headed down to the docks because we had heard it’s pretty fun to watch the seals fishing for the salmon down there. There’s an outtake pipe that leads from the creek to the ocean, and all the salmon have to jump up that to get to the creeks where they want to be. The only problem for them is that the seals know all about it, and work in tandem. One seal swims into the pipe and scares all the salmon out where the other seal is waiting. Poor fish just can’t catch a freaking break, can they?

We think the seals had already eaten as many fish as they could that day because while we were watching, they were just scaring them and playing. It was fun to watch. We’ll have to go back and see them in real hunt mode.

So tomorrow at lunch, I’ll re-size the rest of the pictures that were taken the next day on our way home from work. I’ll tease you again with this one…

Sorry about that; I’m mean.

Another bit of news is that my brother, Pete, and his girlfriend, Emmie, were in Skagway this past Saturday. That was fun. We knew they were coming, but didn’t have the specific date, so it was a nice surprise to hear a familiar drawl at work that day. Since Phil and I were working, we let Pete and Emmie take our truck to Dyea and around. Then they met up with us after work and we caught up over Spruce Tip beer. I really enjoyed their visit, and I hope they had fun too. I’m looking forward to a visit at their place in North Carolina sometime soon.

Sue:

I don’t have time for a real blog right now, but here’s a taste of what’s to come…

Sue:

Some of my memories are sketchy at best. What I mean by that is sometimes I remember things that my sister, Gina, said never happened, and conversely I don’t remember doing things that my friends and family said I did. (Kerrie and Gina know what I’m talking about, like them telling me I’ve been to Dollywood…whatever.) But I have a memory of my folks having a friend who flew helicopters. And I remember him saying he was going to give me ride in it. But then he died in a helicopter accident. My family can tell me if I’m full of it, and that story, true or not, really doesn’t have much to do with this blog, except that I finally got my helicopter ride. And it was awesome. In my mind, there’s no other way to fly. And I’m a nervous flier. I don’t like plane rides. I think it’s the buildup of the runway takeoff and landing. With a helicopter, that drama isn’t there. Right up you go.

So anyway, locals can take their chances and try to fly standby for a discounted price. Phil and had tried once before, but they had no room for us. So last Sunday we called in the morning to see, and they said we could stop by in the afternoon and see. We got there and they said they wouldn’t know until right before it was time to take off, but they sat us down and had us watch a safety video with about five other hopefuls. It didn’t look good for us. The other people waiting all seemed to know the workers, and the bus from the cruise ships dumped off quite a lot of paying people. But our names were called, and we were in! Two other people were turned away, so we lucked out. We paid up, and then suited up. We had to wear a inflatable life vest thing (like that would help if we hit the water)

and some cool spiky shoes (sorry, Lou, I was once again wearing shoes other people had worn before, but if it makes you feel less grossed out, they go OVER your own shoes).

And then we waited around for our choppers to come for us. They fly out to the glacier, dump people off, and come back for more people. We were slated for lucky number five helipad.

Our chopper landed, folks got off, and then it was fueled up.

I wish we could have sat up front, but since Phil and I are fatties, some small folks got that honor. But there are no bad seats in the chopper, even though I was smooshed between Phil and another lady pretty good. It’s a good thing I took a shower that morning.

It’s hard to talk in a helicopter, so there wasn’t much discussion. You have headsets on, and if you have something to say, you reach above your head and push a button, like a walkie-talkie. I did speak up enough to find out how long our pilot, Ryan, had been flying (eight years).

(Ahhhh, I’m a sucker for that military haircut. Ladies, you with me?)

The flight to the glacier took about twenty minutes. I wish it would have been longer. And the day was a nice one, so the pilot said we were lucky enough to be going a route they rarely get to take.

We got to the glacier and met up with our glacier guide, Kyle, who told us about glaciers and who walked us around for a while.

It was a good thing we had those shoes on because we did a bit of crevasse jumping.

And there were cool holes all over the place.

To stay warm out there, Kyle and crew have this little hut. They sleep overnight there sometimes, too, and do cool things on their days off. He told us he was staying overnight to go caving the next day. Pretty neat summer job, eh?

Random shots from the glacier:

And before we knew it, it was time to go back. Kyle took a picture of us with our chopper in the background.

We went back a different way and got to see Long Lake.

And then we were back in Skagway.

Sue:

Did I ever mention the good luck charms we have here called bilikins? If I haven’t, go do a wikipedia search and see what I’m talking about. Our buddy, Jerry, got Phil interested in carving soapstone, so Phil has been making his version of the bilikin, which I dubbed the Philikin.

Ain’t he cute? He did another one, and if you watch South Park it looks almost exactly like Stan’s grandpa, wheelchair and all. I should have taken a picture of it. Maybe later.

I’m supposed to be talking about our helicopter flight, aren’t I? Too bad. I don’t have time for that now, but all the pictures are ready to go. I’ll do that later this week.

I stole some pictures from Jerry of a bear who’s been wandering around where we live. I didn’t see this fella for myself, even though I was out with the dogs not ten minutes after these pictures were taken. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t see him. Xander would have tried to pick a fight.

And here’s that picture of Harrison Ford I secretly took. You can see Calista better, but oh well. I liked Ally McBeal.

Here’s another picture of Jerry’s of Phil carving soapstone at work. Shame on him.

And one teaser picture from our helicoper ride:

Sue:

We actually stayed up for the 4th of July fireworks this year. It wasn’t easy. Because it really doesn’t get dark here, the fireworks started at 11:30 p.m. on the 3rd. That was way past my bedtime, but luckily we didn’t work on the 4th, so we didn’t mind staying up.

Not that we got to sleep in, though. We were in the 4th of July parade representing the Corrington’s. The theme of this year’s parade was “Freedom on Broadway.” Here is the Corrington’s take on that:

A bunch of us employees marched and threw stuff at people. That was fun.

Me and Phil before the parade:

Hip Cigar Store Indian (with shades):

Delicious irony flag:

My favorite float (there was a guy in the back of the truck with a fishing pole that had one of the coupon books that are given out on the cruise ships):

Gotta love bagpipers:

And President Bush:

Can’t have a parade without fire trucks:

Or madams:

Our boss, Sherry, kicking up her stylish-booted heels:

Phil, waving his train whistle:

After the parade, Phil and I participated in the annual egg toss. This year was special because Skagway was going for the World’s Record egg toss. The previous record was held by some town in Canada that had an egg toss with around 800 participants. Ours here had over 1400 participants! Yay, Skagway!

Phil and I did okay. We made it almost all the way from sidewalk to sidewalk. But then the egg sailed over my head and:

The winners were amazing. Once it was down to only a few participants, they turned them sideways in the street. These folks were hurling their eggs about 50 yards. They knew what they were doing. It was cool to watch. I’m just glad our job is not street sweeper. Yucky.

I mentioned Creepy Baby in my last blog because I thought I took a 4th of July picture of it, but I guess I didn’t. But I can tell you about the cool Harrison Ford/Sherry Corrington story. Sherry and her sister were looking for Ford around town. Didn’t see him. But as I told ya’ll, we knew his complete intinery, and we knew Ford was going to have dinner at The Stowaway Cafe that night. A friend of Sherry works there, and was going to call Sherry when Ford was leaving. I don’t know if that happened, but Shery and her sister were outside of the Stowaway taking pictures of Sherry’s Creepy Baby. (Creepy Baby is this baby doll that Sherry takes on her travels and takes pictures of.) This night, Creeps had a cigarette hanging out of its mouth, and looked pretty creepy. Ford and posse came out of the restaurant, and Sherry played it cool, and just kept taking pictures. The rest of the group got in their car, but Mr. Ford hung back and watched. Sherry looked over at him, pointed to Creeps, and asked, “Would you mind?” He said sure. Took the doll, and got his picture taken with it. Sherry’s making me a magnet of it. It’s great. If you would like one, let me know and I’ll see how much she’s selling them for.

That’s about it for me for now, but stay tuned because Phil and were able to get standby helicopter flights today. More on that later.

Sue:

I have stuff to write about, complete with pictures, but I just can’t seem to find the time to get it all together. But here’s what’s in store….

4th of July fireworks.

4th of July parade, in which Phil and I were participants!

4th of July egg toss (world record), of which Phil and I were participants!

Creepy baby.

Now I know you’ll be checking back every day. Just a fun retail story to end this…my boss sold a calendar the other day on which we had written, in big, black, bold letters, “STORE COPY.” It was not wrapped, of course, and was totally messed up from people leafing through it. But the fellow brought it to the counter, so my boss figured what the hell.

Sue:

By yours truly. And Phil, of course. It’s a small town. We knew his entire schedule. We didn’t see him at all yesterday, and didn’t have high hopes of anything today since he was due to fly outta here, but we decided to walk past the place he was staying this morning on our way to work just for fun (and we had watched The Fugitive last night for luck). A bearded fellow was walking the sidewalk outside of The White House (where my in-laws stayed last summer incidentally) talking on his cell phone. Phil was headed right for him and I nudged Phil and said, “That’s him…that’s him!” We didn’t make a fuss, and I didn’t pull my camera out and bug him, but I came within ten feet of him. And we saw Calista come down the steps. My papparazzi instinct kicked in around the library, though, and I hid around the corner and took some pictures. They aren’t great, and you’ll have to take my word for it, but it’s him. My boss (who gave me the name of the title of this post) has a better story about meeting him, and I’ll share that with you later.